The alleged hostage situation took place inside the Illinois Vehicle Insurance on Sibley Boulevard on Tuesday around 2:20 p.m. and last about an hour and a half. The woman was reportedly a clerk there.
A man apparently armed with a gun held a woman inside the business hostage. His motive is still unknown. But after the gunman shot the hostage, he came out of the building and police shot him.
One man, Elmo Riddle, talked with the mother and the sister of the female victim.
"A guy tried to rob the place and took one of the workers hostage, held her hostage and eventually he shot her," said Riddle. "And I guess they kicked the door in, and he tried to escape through the front, and they shot him. But that's been over an hour and a half ago and we're just finding out what's going on. That's her mother. Her mother didn't know what was happening. Matter of fact, I knew what happened before her mother did. So, we're just trying to cope with that right now. It's just a bad situation."
SWAT teams, armed with semi-automatics and dressed in camouflage, surrounded the business. The man came running out after police had communicated by megaphone. Several shots were fired and he fell to the ground in the middle of Sibley."Before he ran out, it was a big ka-boom, like somebody kicked in the back door, that's what made him run out," said witness Tony Gilliam.
One witness said when the man left the building he was holding a cell phone to his ear and a gun pointed at police. A video taken at the scene shows the man appeared to have a cell phone.
"I am 100 percent certain he had a gun in his hand," said one man. "And aimed it at police." Police would make no comment on why the man was shot or his motive.Medical personnel rushed in to help him, put him on a gurnee and took him away by ambulance.
